Discussion for this week's thursday thoughts on unite. Have fun

http://www.unitefingerboarding.com/2012/04/thursday-thoughts-7.html

Really interesting. You know, I never really thought about it because I've only ever used Flatface bearing wheels. Some larger wheels and really really small wheels would be interesting.

I think fingerboards being lower to the ground might have an interesting effect on performance.

I generally disagree. I think there is a large variation on wheel dimensions in the fingerboard wheel market.

i think its all down to costs really....

would maybe be nice to have different sized wheels in the same brand/type, but i dont think its going to happen anytime soon really...

i think a few people laughed when they first saw Simon's Cartwheels, (as they were so small) but the performance of the things was great (due to their size)...if only he was around to perfect them.....

i agree with the whole urethane thing also. would you ride a real skateboard with plastic wheels? can you even imagine that? you would be sliding allover the place.


also as Xi says, believe it or not, their IS quite a bit of difference between wheels. due to their size you dont notice it though.....if you had a micro meter you would see the differences and if your going by 0.00 their is ALOT of variations between the wheels......but im fussy bugger. i could tell you how long my eye lashes are as Ive measured them

blosom wrote:

i could tell you how long my eye lashes are as Ive measured them

thats not normal dude.. hahahaha

I'm not doubting the difference between wheel companies, I'm wondering if single companies will start working on more than one size, because a lot of wheel companies seem to have one size only. I can see why though, I'm just wondering what you guys thought on that.

For example, I'd love some slightly smaller winklers. I think small wheels are really fun to ride, FF brr ed wheels are a bit smaller than winklers and I really enjoy their size, just not the material.

Plastic skateboard wheels.. go buy a cheapy like £5 board from a sports shop.. they do exist, and yes, they're horrible XD

Thanks for joining in the discussion everyone

T-Dub97 wrote:

blosom wrote:

i could tell you how long my eye lashes are as Ive measured them

thats not normal dude.. hahahaha

have you seen my eye lashes?


all the winklers now have grown in size. ive still got a set of one of the first ed brr eds, that were really tiny compared to the new ones.....also one of the first eds of the big daddies. those are the size of the new brr eds........i guess Germany says bigger is better?

haha yeah i remember the budget boards :lol: ones with 'rambo' painted on the bottom and matching florescent yellow trucks and wheels. legendary. cant ollie them for sheet.

Kerry.. You need to check out Granfingers..

http://grand-fingers.pl/articles/2

1985 = powell bones 65mm
1991 = powell baby balls 42mm
my skate shop currently carrys 49 to 58mm wheels
and all sizes inbetween - each had its purpose - i personaly miss the 90s tech era that ushered in the standardized shape skate decks we have now and the ultra mini wheels that helped us all learn and invent tech tricks.



ive been in the skate scene for 22 years now and have seen fads come and go - like the tiny wheels - but i do remember them fondly - not for how awfull slow they were - or how much you hung up with them on rough surfaces - but the joy of learning late shoveits and that ground breaking feeling like we were on the cutting edege of changing how skateboarding was to become in the future.. i am so proud to have been there during that time period

how this relates to fingerboarding -

to me just shows us how much our sport is defined by the companies that produce the products we use... like kerri said - want tiny winklers - sorry cant have it. it does not exist. its not like we can go to our favorite skate shop with such a vast selection of product for us to choose from to custom tailor our fingerboarding wants and needs to fit our styles.

as i see it - we have 4 choices of trucks to use. brt / y / woodf / tech deck

imagine the skateboarding world if there were only 4 manufactures of trucks - it would be insane to think of that. there are probably over 30 diffrent BIG name truck manufactures - let alone wheels tape bearings and bushings

not that fingerboarding is as big as skateboarding - but - there are literly hundreds of thousands of kids out there with tech decks. and i bet over 50% of them dont even know better products exist. ... i diddnt

Grand are pretty impossible to order if you don't speak polish from what I can gather from their website, but my point was mainly wondering if the smaller companies will start to offer things in different sizes, and if the companies that do will go for even more sizes.

And brian I agree entirely! I miss those wheels too, they were epic. They were dying out as I started skateboarding as a kid, but I remember them well.

I know Grand are hard to get, i just wanted to show you that there is at least one company doing this.
That said, the Polish scene have always been a bit different.

I myself have never thought about the size of my FB wheels. And i have owned the same set of skateboard wheels in close to 10 years.
Someone should do a table like Xi's truck table, but with wheels.

yea, and it was a valid point to make, so thanks I wish some of the stuff over there was more internationally available! Wouldn't mind getting some grand wheels on fingersized if they have brr ed wheels : o

a wheel table would be cool to see!

brian84corvette wrote:

- like the tiny wheels -

i remember i had a Pacer Neil Danz setup as one of my first setups. (kids probably dont remember this sort of gear). it had Pacer Acid Drop wheels on it. at the time they were quite big, but i rode those wheels until they were like 2 pence pieces. this was around the time when small wheels were 'cool' i just had them as i couldn't afford new wheels :lol:

has nothing to do with fingerboarding though.

Xi wrote:

I generally disagree. I think there is a large variation on wheel dimensions in the fingerboard wheel market.

I have to agree with XI on this one.
Also, I really don't think we will move to urethane, unless it becomes super smooth.
I mean, we really don't have to worry about our wheels cracking like skateboard plastic wheels.
and if skateboards could ride as smooth as we do, I'm sure they would.
I personally think we should follow skateboarding only when it helps fingerboard performance.
( like berlinwood's shape is following skateboarding, and it performs amazingly.)

my close up are 7mm and my winkers brs are 6mm

I like to see urethane on a wheel, as small as cartwheels....

I'd be up for them!

Is it cart wheels company closed down.

brian84corvette wrote:

there are literly hundreds of thousands of kids out there with tech decks. and i bet over 50% of them dont even know better products exist. ... i diddnt

agreed. And even now, i put any money i have into BMX, rather than fb :'( As a result i have one set of bearing wheels (plastic) and i can't really add to this debate. But with something like this i'm sure everyone will feel better suited to larger/smaller. The problem is, there probably aren't enough people in that mindset to sustain the selling of different sized wheels. One size would end up being popular and BAM, back to one size again.

To change the topic slightly, on the thought of there being only 4 truck companies (and techdecks CANNOT count because their kingpins stick intp the board so you can't screw the bastards in), why is this? If some company came out with a new mold (oh come on, how hard is that) i'm sure it would rocket to popularity. It's not like the trucks on the market are perfect, by any means.

CrazzzzyBoarder wrote:

To change the topic slightly, on the thought of there being only 4 truck companies (and techdecks CANNOT count because their kingpins stick intp the board so you can't screw the bastards in), why is this? If some company came out with a new mold (oh come on, how hard is that) i'm sure it would rocket to popularity. It's not like the trucks on the market are perfect, by any means.

actually new tech deck trucks do not have kingpins sticking thru anymore.
they have improved slightly.

crazy border.

You try dealing with molten metals. and being able to mold them.

Don't forget the money to buy the mold,get the CAD drawing,buying the actual metal to melt,have the metal melted,get the nuts,axles,hardware etc. but yeah other then that it's easy :roll:

http://store.italianstreetstyle.com/skate/en/9-wheels ahum.

yes, the cost of all that will be passed down to the buyer, but if the popularity is right it could work, commercially. I'm not saying any dude could do it in their garage, but there is enough demand in the fb world (maybe... i dunno) for a company to come in (or an existing one) and invest in a new truck mold?

^I've heard there are no comply trucks coming one day, and I'm pretty eager to see what closeup gen 5 trucks are like.. so, yea, there's definitely stuff being done - it all takes time

agreed, and having re-read what i wrote it pretty much sounds like i want fb to become full of big companies and franchises. I don't... so in a way i should stop moaning about the lack of trucks. But yeah kerry, any new product is a good one!